Tools > File Systems > Label Disks

You can label a drive from any StorNext server or client that has a fibre channel (FC) connection to the drive. The two types of labels are EFI and VTOC.

Label Type

Description

EFI

EFI labels are required if you plan to create LUNs that are larger than 2TB.

Note: For Solaris, EFI labels are also required for LUNs with a raw capacity greater than 1TB. EFI labels will not work with the IRIX operating system.

EFI labels are the default for StorNext.

VTOC

VTOC labels are used for all operating systems in previous StorNext and Xsan releases, and are still required for the SGI IRIX operating system, Solaris releases prior to Solaris 10 Update 2, and LUNs less than 1TB.

Follow this procedure to label any new or unused devices, or relabel a device that has been unlabeled.

Caution: Labeling a disk device will result in a complete loss of data on that disk device.

Choose Label Disks from the Tools > File Systems menu.

(Optional) Click Scan to initiate a scan of the disk devices in your SAN.

Caution: Before you initiate a scan, be aware that in complex SAN environments frequent disk scanning can lead to SAN instability including timeout errors. Before the scan begins you will receive a reminder and be given the opportunity to confirm whether you want to proceed with the scan.

Select the disk devices to which you want to apply labels. Use the checkbox column to select disks, or hold down Shift while clicking the left mouse button to select multiple disks. If a disk device already has a label, continuing with this procedure overwrites the existing label.

Specify the label type by choosing EFI or VTOC.

Enter a label name in the text field to the right of the EFIandVTOC buttons. If you have selected more than one disk to label, the label name is the base name used by the labeling process, and a unique number is appended to this base name for each disk that is labeled.

Click Label.

When the confirmation message appears, verify that the disk you are labeling is empty, and then click OKto proceed, or clickCancelto abort without labelling the disk.

Note: If you later unlabel a device and then decide to make the unlabeled device usable by the StorNext File System, you must first relabel the device. The relabeling process is identical to labeling initially.